The Guardian's Women's Football Weekly - Spain dazzle, Ada delivers and England prepare for France – Women’s Football Weekly

Episode Date: July 4, 2025

Faye Carruthers is joined by Tom Garry, Sophie Downey and Tim Stillman to review the opening games of Euro 2025 and preview England and Wales’ tough starts in Group D

This is The Guardian. Hello, I'm Faker Others and welcome to The Guardian Women's Football Weekly. We are underway. Euro 2025 has kicked off and Spain have already laid down their marker after a 5-0 win over Portugal. Everyone's now jumping on the Italy dark horse bandwagon after their 1-0 win over Belgium. It was a dramatic opener for the hosts though. Switzerland came out of the blocks fast, but Norway came from behind to top Group A after Finland froze out Iceland. We'll look ahead to England, France and Wales,

Netherlands in Group D, talk searing heat, red cards and wonky numbers. Plus we'll take your questions and that's today's Guardian Women's Football Weekly. Oh what a panel we have today. Good morning Tom Gary, how are you? Good morning. Somebody has just come into my room. Oh. I'm recording a podcast. Can I talk to you later? That hasn't happened before. I think that was the cleaners. I mean, how are you? Clearly your room needs cleaning.

I'm actually really glad that we were doing the pod and I was dressed and I was like, you know, not like lying in bed or something. No, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. And we had a, it's been like really unpleasantly hot here in Zurich for the last few days, but last night we had like a sort of one of those cinematic, very like crashing lightning, like booming across the city, which was like really quite fun, but I'm hoping that means that it's kind of going to cool down a little bit now and that might bring through some of the fresher air, hopefully

in time for England playing against France here, because the city has just been sweltering since we arrived. So hopefully now we'll sleep a bit better from here on. Listen, you are a brilliant sports journalist, but I actually think there's a future as a weather forecaster on the horizon for you. That was so beautifully, beautifully done. Good morning, Sophie Downey. How are you? You had a very busy day yesterday, back-to-back games. Yeah, it's been a bit mad. I have to be honest, the first few days you can tell by the fact that I'm wearing my glasses how much I'm struggling with my eyes at the moment. And no hat!

Yeah, no, but a really, really fun, exciting first two days I think to the tournament. I've been to Bern and I went to Basel for the opener in the first day, so I'm getting to explore Switzerland quite a bit and yeah, lots of good football. Tim Stillman, you're with me, we have the Switzerland FOMO. Looking at the mountains wistfully. Indeed, experiencing this entirely from my sofa, but enjoying it nonetheless. Absolutely. Listen, I feel like myself and Tim are a little bit fraudulent here and we've got no Susie, however it did make me smile when we got an email on Women's Football Weekly at theGuardian.com

from Ian and Hebe. Hello Faye, Susie, Sophie and the Women's Football Weekly team is here. We're so excited. This promises to be a feast of football and a feast of cheese! How many cheeses has Suzy tried so far? I'll find out. Emmental, Gruyere, Appenzeller, is that how you pronounce it? Please can we keep track? Perhaps I could fill in a cheese chart alongside my Euros wall chart. Look forward to the next pod and the next one Ian and he beat from Alesbury PS Swiss wines are that country's best kept secret especially with a fondue white wine before red wine after Tom so

have you been sampling the culinary delights I haven't yet although I did drive past Emmental yesterday so I was thinking about cheese when I drove past Emmental. But yeah, I've not had a lot of time to really sit down and try. I just got fed a really nice gingerbread biscuit though, which was delicious. Cautiously, yes, Faye, but the prices are kind of scary. Like, Susie and I had a really rather delicious pizza on the first night, mainly for convenience because it was quite close by, and I think the cheapest one on the menu was £23.

Oh my god. Just to give you a rough idea, that was if you wanted like your basic. You wanted a margarita. Yeah, if you wanted something a bit nicer, you were looking upwards of £30. So just, if you're an England or a Wales fan or a fan of any other country coming out here, just sort of bring the piggy bank with you and bring any extra coins you have because it's not cheap over here. Bring the vault by the sounds of it.

Right, let's actually start the football analysis, shall we? Euro 2025 finally kicked off in Tuen on Wednesday afternoon. It was a strange quirk of the scheduling really meaning that Iceland took on Finland in the early fixture with the official tournament opener featuring the hosts coming later on that day. But Finland got their campaign off to a perfect start as the group underdogs. They earned a narrow win over 10 player Iceland. It finished Iceland nil. Finland won thanks to a second half goal from Katarina Kosola after Hilda Antons-Dottir had earned the first red card of the tournament as

well. Tom, it was Helmaritz's first win in the European Championships for 16 years. What did you make of the performance from Marco Salaranta's side? Finland were okay. I don't want to get over excited about Finland. They played all right. They were relatively uninspiring. It was the sort of game I feared, Faye, because of the really hot temperatures for that earlier kick-off into it. I think it was around 33 degrees shortly before the game. With two sides who were never going to serve up a feast of football regardless and then you add in that extra heat to make it harder for them. I was always a bit worried about it as an opening fixture

and hoping that people wouldn't judge a book by its cover because the best is still to come. And I was really happy for Finland. I actually spoke to a Finland fan yesterday who said, I'm happy now we've won a game. I don't mind what happens. And it was quite sweet and joyous to see that kind of reaction.

And keeping the context of Finland had never qualified for a Women's World Cup as well, so these sort of moments for them are really special. But I didn't think they were particularly inspiring and I suppose it will give significant hope to the Swiss, for example, that their campaign's still got a lot of life in it yet, for example, because I think just generally I thought it was a relatively disappointing contest to be quite honest with you. The quality levels were quite low. That's not a very good start, is it? Sorry. Well, listen, I just want to make sure that everybody knows we're doing this chronologically rather than, you know, or you could say we're building to a crescendo because we will analyse the Spain-Portugal match last because it was the one played last night as we record on Friday morning.

Soph, talk to me about Katarina Kossela, 24 years old, seen as one of the bright stars coming through for Finland and it was her first appearance in a major tournament. How much does she impress you? She impressed me a lot. I think her direct play, the way that she was cutting through the Icelandic defence and the midfield areas as well, and she was a real bright spark and she was the one that really deserved that goal of all of the players. I think she was involved in most of the creative play and Finland had the chances going forward. I was a bit surprised by Iceland. I think Kossela, she's probably announced herself now on the global stage. I know that she's very, very much highly rated back in Finland. She plays for Malmo.

She started playing for Malmo in the Damocles Fence this season. So she's moving up in her career, I think, and this is the place where she can really shine. And, you know, this is for nations like Finland and players who play for Finland, this is their opportunity to maybe make it, make a name for themselves, make that big, get themselves in people's heads and thinking about maybe the moves down the line about where they could go later. And we've seen a lot of Finland players come to the WSL, for example. So this is her stage, this is her chance. And I think she definitely didn't do that any harm in that opener against Iceland. Iceland actually came into this tournament confident they could get results in Group A but where did it go

wrong for them and can they, in quite an open group as we discussed in the preview pod the other day, can they salvage their chances of getting out when they play Switzerland next? I think they can just because I because you look at even just the FIFA rankings of these teams, they're quite close together. This is the most congested group. I think where it went wrong for them, I think first of all, Vigis Dottir having to go off was a big blow for them. Actually quite interesting when she went down first time, the Iceland players kind of formed a crescent around her, which looked like kind of a new tactic to conceal an injury. But Vigorsdottir said afterwards she went off with diarrhoea. So there might be another reason that they're forming a crescent around

her. I won't go into that too much. I mean, you want teammates like that in that situation, don't you? Yeah, absolutely. So that was obviously a big blow for them. And then of course the red card for AntonsdArtir in the second half, which was kind of a really silly red card to pick up as well. And obviously Finland had the kind of the context of Rantala isn't really fit. She's not really played a lot in the last season. So one of their key attacking players, but for Iceland,

I think they just kind of lack imagination a bit. They bypass that midfield. I think we're seeing quite similar teams in these first two kind of games who maybe have one or two elite attacking talents like Belgium with Boulillard, for example, a Portugal with Jessica Silva. And clearly they're just trying to get the ball to Yannis Dottir as quickly as possible, but and kind of hoping for the best. But I think one of the things I didn't understand as well was Dotir as quickly as possible, but, and kind of hoping for the best. But I think one of the things I didn't understand as well was not using Brinyars

Dotir from the start, given that long throw ins were clearly one of Iceland's two tactics other than trying to get the ball up front as quickly as possible. I think when you've got an aerial threat like that, and one of your key attacking tactics is long throws. I don't really understand why they didn't start Brigners d'Artier so I think there are a few things to reflect on but they're not out of it in this group by any means. No, just a quick word Tom on the sending off, it was quite a naughty stamp from Anton's d'Artier on Evelina Summonham for the second yellow card. I think actually she was quite lucky it wasn't a straight red really. Yeah that's a really good point. I think she was a little bit fortunate. Although that

moment actually raises a point that I'd like to make if I may which is that the rule that you can't review a second yellow... Drives me nuts. I find that, yeah. And this is quite a good time to say it because it's one where there's no sour grapes involved and I don't think they would have not sent her off. So, you know, but Iceland clearly wanted it to be VAR reviewed and it couldn't be. And I think in a scenario where if we deemed it to not even be

worthy of a yellow card, that rule, I think, needs looking at a little bit, because it's such a big decision to take a team down to 10 players. So that was my main thought coming from that. But in this instance, absolutely no injustice really, as far as I'm concerned. I think as you allude to it probably might have even been a straight red. It might have been actually better that it didn't get the AR review because then she

would miss three games, whereas now she missed one. So they're quite pleased that that didn't happen. I'm sure they are. Absolutely. Right. So so that was a minor upset wasn't it really in the opening game but that set up for the main course that followed that perfect appetizer Switzerland taking centre stage in Basel and this was quite fun this game wasn't it a dramatic encounter in the end 34,000 fans at St. Jacob Park and Norway ended up coming from behind to break the hosts hearts who'd had a brilliant start. It finished Switzerland 1, Norway 2. Nadine Riesen had fired Switzerland into the lead in the first half an hour of the game but a powerful header from Arda Hegerberg and some suspect defending you have to say and an own goal as well from Julia Stierli

turned the game around for Gemma Granger's side. You were in Basel so it felt like a really special night for the Swiss in particular. Just give us a flavour of the whole occasion. It was a really special night. I think it's always interesting to the Swiss national team is on a developing stage right. It's not kind of like the last years where you're in England and you're already at that level and the kind of football in England is all-encompassing. Whereas I think it's really interesting to see in a nation like Switzerland how they embrace a tournament like this and they really, really did in Basel, certainly. The noise in Sunyako Park

was insane. It properly gave you spine tingles. The anthem was incredible as well and you could only look at Lea Volte's face and you could see the emotion on her and I think she put on Instagram you know once-in-a-lifetime moment kind of thing. So super special. Switzerland as a nation and the players itself. Whenever Switzerland broke forward and they had quite a lot of creative spells just yeah the noise in the stadium. I was a bit surprised by the opening ceremony, it was a bit weird. There were a lot of silver poles and you can actually see what was happening from pitch level. I think it was made for the cameras where you could see what they were doing from the top, so the trophy appeared. It just looked like inflatable

balloons or something. So we had no idea what was going on. In the many, many tournaments that I've covered over my career, I don't think I've ever seen an opening ceremony that has not been a little bit bonkers, very weird and not as impressive as I think they want it to be. Yeah, it was very, very strange. I was sitting next to Suzie and we were just like, what is happening? And then we saw the clips online and we were like, oh, that's what they're doing. So a bit strange, a bit awkward. That makes a good point.

Again, is it just for fans at home and broadcasters rather than the people actually in the stadium? You know, are we getting, we're supposed to be, you know, looking at this as an event experience and yet they're still prioritizing broadcast. Yeah and that's a bit of a problem is if the people in the stadium don't get involved and get the atmosphere going around things like that, that's the whole point of it is to kickstart the tournament to celebrate what's going on and everyone I think was just looking a bit like

what is this? This is a bit mad. And then the game was a little bit mad to be honest it was it was it was quite fun wasn't it but I think it's fair to say Tim that despite walking away with three points Norway is still a little bit of a conundrum this is what their manager Jim McGranger had to say in football you make your own luck the games will be tight in this championship sometimes you want a perfect world where you perform and win sometimes you perform and don't win I thought Switzerland were fabulous but it was a game of two halves and we came out the better in the second half and they did, you can't really argue with that. But what did you learn from this performance if anything about Norway? It's so strange, they're so used to disappointing us

that no one's really talking about them coming into the tournament and you look at the names on the paper and they should be talked about but we kind of know, it feels like we know them well enough to go oh Norway always kind of disappoint and I have to say even though they got the win that I wasn't really discouraged from that view I find it so strange they've got this gift where they've got Barcelona starting right winger, Chelsea starting left winger, Arsenal's starting number 10, Ada Hegerberg up front, they've got Ingrid Engen, like I know they're a bit top heavy and they perhaps don't have the same in defence, maybe they don't have the ball progression,

and you think wow what a template to work with, and then they're playing Friedemann on the right wing, Gero Riten in midfield. I looked at the average position map and Gero Riten and Caroline Graham Hansen are on top of each other. And you're like, why? Why are you doing this? Like you've been handed this gift of all this talent. It seems successive Norway coaches have done this.

They've just moved these pieces around the board in ways they don't need. And I wasn't impressed by them at all. And even though they got the win, I'm not dissuaded from my view that they are a really talented team that just look really set to under deliver on their talent. Wow. I mean, you could really level that. Arda Hegerberg's performance, strange game for her, superb header, brilliant movement, by the way, really well worked. Her 50th goal for her country as well, so special, but then she goes and drags a penalty wide and you know the goalkeeper was nowhere near

that. It was definitely going in the bottom corner if she'd been on target but there has been a little bit of talk about her recently Tom and her form but was there enough there to kind of show why Gemma Granger keeps putting faith in her captain? I mean, you don't want to be the person that drops Ada Hegerberg, do you? No, I'm having none of this. I think you have to play Hegerberg up front for the huge game experience that she's got for so many different reasons. That was her 50th goal for her country, which is a big number considering how long a period she wasn't involved with the

national side. You know, she's scored a huge number of international goals. I actually, I won't name them, not a name and shame, but I speak to some England fans here in Zurich yesterday who were sort of describing her as a little bit over the hill. And my feeling is she's 29. She's not over the hill. She's still right in her peak really. And I appreciate she's might not be in the most electric of form right now, but nonetheless, I still think you have to start her up front for all the major tournament now that she brings. It's somebody who played in a Euros final, you know, when she was just 17 years old, um, back it back in the, the Euros in 2013, she's, she's been there

and done it in so many different ways. And I, I personally think it would take a very, very brave coach to not play her. You've got to start Hagebagh up front for all those reasons. I'm playing Devil's Advocate because I agree with you, but that's my job. Let's focus on the good for Switzerland, Sophie, because they were brilliant in that first half, I felt. What kind of, despite defeat, what do they take into their next game? I think they can take so much and they have some really good quality attacking players, young players as well. I was really impressed by Iman Beni, obviously just signed for Manchester

City. Youngster, she was absolutely loving it down that right side, having so much space to work in. And I think with her, it's just finding that end product, that kind of maturity. But the raw talent is clearly there. I thought Geraldine Reutler kind of ran the show for Switzerland up front. She is such a live wire. And she hit the bar. She was unlucky not to score, but she was at the heart of everything good that Switzerland did.

I think they created enough to at least draw that game. They had you know three chances later on there were a series of blocks. I don't know how they didn't go in and kind of when that happens at that stage you're like well this is never gonna happen is it? But I think they can when they it will have been hugely disappointing that they didn't come through that one. I think they felt they did enough to get something from it but when they reflect on it when they look at that performance and what they did right and when they look at Iceland and Finland ahead and what they can exploit in that I think they'll be feeling very very

confident that they can get out of that kind of group now and kind of get something from it. Yeah let's just can we just mention the wonky numbers because I said it at the start and I have to say friend of the pod Robin Cowan did make me chuckle when there was a confusion as to which players were coming off because the Norway team numbers do look wonky. Can I just come in on Switzerland in attack? Obviously they've got like four teenagers in their squad but we're talking about Hegerberg. I think Switzerland, you know, they've lost Ramona Batman to injury. They really could have done with an experienced attacker, I

think, because they had Norway under pressure at the end and they didn't make great decisions and I think you could see they were a bit young there and they left Kona Gortjvich on the bench and maybe they could have just done with either her or, if she was fit, Ramona Batman, almost as that Hegerberg figure to just stick the ball in the net when it matters, but agree with Soph, I don't think they've got much to worry about with their next two opponents. No, and you've disappointed me. I wanted to talk wonky numbers and you brought it back to football tactics and players. Unbelievable. Those next games come on Sunday the 6th of July, so Switzerland will be facing Iceland. That's an eight o'clock British summertime

kick-off in Leovolti's hometown of Bern, which will be special for her. Norway-Finland is just before that at 6 o'clock in Sion. Right, so we moved into Group B on Thursday with world champion Spain looking to mount their Euro 2025 challenge while Belgium and Italy battled it out in Sion. In the early kickoff it finished Belgium nil. Italy won. It was really evenly matched this one but the winner was a wonderful curling finish from Ariana Caruso just before the break. She is some player and you know it felt like a must win for both sides really if they were going to have a chance to get out of the group

bearing in mind I think we've all decided that Spain are going to top it. What did you make of the game Tim? Were you expecting it to be as competitive as it was? Yeah, yeah. Italy are a really interesting team coming into this tournament. They can kind of switch formations and they've undergone a bit of a rejuvenation under their new manager. But I think with this game in particular, I mean, the thing Italy lack, they don't have a lot of ball- playing midfielders and neither the Belgium really. That kind of showed up again in this game.

It was quite attritional, probably not fantastic for the neutral, particularly once Italy had the lead and there was lots of kind of drawing fouls and breaking the game up and staying down and then Belgium got frustrated and committed more fouls I mean if you're Italian that you'd say they saw the game out brilliantly and they completely kind of I think they played Belgium a bit but watching it as a neutral when the nine minutes for stoppage time went up I kind of I had this dual thought of I'm glad the time wasting has been added on but at the same time I kind of don't want another nine minutes of this because if you know, Italy, they saw it out very well, but it wasn't particularly entertaining for the neutral.

But I think definitely second place is very up for grabs in this group. And I think Italy very, very much in the driving seat for that. Yeah. There are quite a few people's dark horses, Tom. We had a little bit of debate, didn't we? In the Guardian Women's Football Weekly WhatsApp chat? People jumping on the bandwagon of Italy and then all of a sudden saying, no, it's not because Emma Hayes chose them as her dark horses. No, I'm joking. Sof and Marva did actually choose Italy.

But was there anything in that display that you saw the other night that convinced you they can go all the way? All the way? No. Could they be the team that gets through that section of the draw where a semi-finalist is going to emerge from, themselves or Norway? Then yes, they could. As we spoke about on the preview pod, somebody is going to go really deep from this section of the draw. we spoke about on the preview pod, you know, somebody is going to go really deep from this section of the draw. Uh, and their game management impressed me quite a lot. They, that, that was the most mature Italy, but I've seen quite a lot of

naive performances from Italy at tournaments in the last sort of few years. And I believe this is the first time they've won their opening match at Euros for 16 years. So that will give them a good platform to go on. Can they go all the way though? No, I just, I don't, I don't see them being in that, in that conversation. Could you really see them having enough to beat somebody like Germany and then somebody else in a final?

No, not for me. My own view now is actually that they should, they should finish second in the group at least because of the fact that they'd be in Belgium. I felt it was between Italy and Belgium for second and the games come at the start of the group. But that you would now sort of expect Spain to get nine points and Italy to get six would, and they could both be on six after the next round of games because of the way the fixtures are falling and Spain and Italy don't meet each other till the last match. So my, my, I'm, hey, I may be wrong. I'm wrong often, aren't I, with these predictions, but my prediction now would be that by the end of the second

group games, Spain and Italy should both be wrong. I'm wrong often, aren't I, with these predictions, but my prediction now would be that by the end of the second group games, Spain and Italy should both be free. Yeah, okay. I want Sophie to wax lyrical about Ariana Caruso because you got very excited about her. Sophie called her the puppet master in your report. Yeah, I just loved watching her play. I thought she was absolutely integral to everything good Italy did. She is kind of an all-round midfielder. She can play further forward, she links the play and then she dropped back in at the end of the game and was sort of playing the sticks, I think, so the defensive midfielder role. And that's my kind of player, a player who can just do it all. And I think the way that she read the movement for the goal, Belgium was so structurally sound in that first half, but she dropped

deep to pick up the ball and it sent them all over the helter-skelter, I think, and they couldn't quite pick up the movement of her. So she just ran into the space to pick up the return pass and the finish was absolutely glorious. She's had a really, really good career at Juventus. She made the surprise move to go on loan to Bayern Munich and now she's, I think, permanent at Bayern Munich from next season. So she's spreading her wings a bit, but I think she is going to be integral to Italy's chances. And Italy do have these really creative players who can turn it on. I do think part of it in the first game for me was just getting the result of the line. They knew that if they won this game, they had

an absolutely superb chance of making it through to the quarterfinals. So it was going to be a bit gritty, a bit tricky at times, a bit scrappy, but I think you'll start to see them against Port School really start to spread their wings. Just finally, Tim, on this game, a tough one for Belgium to take. What do they need to do to try and improve? I mean, they had a really good chance in the first half for Tessa Woliart at 0-0 and if that goes in it could be very very different. Of course I think Italy kind of, because Italy can go

between a back three and a back four, they matched Belgium up and went with a back three and I think that contributed to the teams cancelling each other out. But Belgium again they're a bit like you know Portugal with Jessica Silva, they're a bit like Iceland Iceland they've got that kind of one elite attacker really in Tessa Woliart and clearly their game plan is to try and get her into the game as much as possible. A lot of back threes in the tournament as well and Belgium played a back three I like the way they use their wing backs and bring them into midfield and you know I do think Belgium can do

something in this tournament in the next game perhaps, but I think losing this game was really kind of critical for them, particularly to lose it and not even to draw it. I have to say I don't think there's just quite enough there going forward other than give the ball to Tessa Woolley or Earlings and hope that they can do something. That really had to work for them in this game and it didn't. And yeah, I think that might be it for them, to be honest. I have to just say one quick thing.

For years and years, we've called her Tessa Woolard or Voolard. And now all of a sudden, everybody has changed the pronunciation. And I'm sure this is what her name is and how she pronounced it. But every time I just hear people say Wully Art I just think of that Scottish cow art print. That's all I can think about every time. Sorry Soph

God, bring it back to sensibility please. No I'm not sure this is much more sensible but I was just going to give a shout out to Vicky Sparks of the BBC who came up with my line of the tournament so far about Justine van Havermaet who says she towered over the Italians much like the mountains of Sion and if you the BBC who came up with my line of the tournament so far about Justine Van Havermaet who said she towered over the Italians much like the mountains of Sion and if you saw the screen the mountains really surround the stadium it's the most picturesque stadium and Justine Van Havermaet is incredibly tall so I just thought that was a perfect quote. Excellent, excellent. I love Vicky but I think I still prefer wonky numbers.

Right. We then moved over to Bern, which is the country's capital. The world champion's taking centre stage over neighbours Portugal. And it was such an emotional day for football on Thursday and for Portugal in particular. After that awful news that Liverpool and Portugal forward Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, had died in a car crash in the early hours of Thursday morning. Our thoughts of course are with their family and friends. There was a minute's silence at the game, some special tributes as well from the Portuguese fans and actually it was a tough evening on the pitch for Francisco Neto's side as you would have expected regardless.

Spain running riot in the first half. In terms of the football it finished Spain 5 Portugal 0, four first half goals including a brace from Esther Gonzalez and strikes from Vicky Lopez and Alexia Puteas. Cristina Martin Pietro added a fifth with the final touch of the match as well. It was just a dominant performance from Spain. Tom, what did you make of it overall? I really enjoyed watching Spain, the technical skill level was as high as you would expect it to have been with Spain and the likes of Alexi Pitez were really on song. The game I think probably also busted a bit of a lazy myth that we've got in Europe that just because Esther Gonzalez doesn't play for Barcelona that maybe she's one of the weak links in the side. Clearly not the case at all. She's

of course the top scorer in the NWSL this season. So, you know, with 10 goals in 13 games. So they come into the tournament with a good in-form number nine in front of all those technically skilled former midfielders and they look good. I won't get carried away by the performance because I think Portugal looked a bit off their best, which is very understandable. I think given the hugely challenging circumstances of yesterday and the difficulties and the emotion of that awful news, so I'm not going to judge Portugal for the way they played, but they weren't really at their best. So it flattered Spain a tiny bit, but nonetheless,

Spain's technical inability with the ball really shone through even with Bonmatti on the bench. So encouraging for Spain. They will be as good as we've all been imagining that they will be at this tournament. You'd expect them to be right there in the very, very lesser stages in the tournament. We'll talk about Vicky Lopez, came in in place of Bonmati very shortly but actually you mentioned there Tom Esther Gonzalez and Sophie has been one of those people that has never not talked about how brilliant she is just because she doesn't play for Barcelona. You actually picked her as one of your shouts for Golden Boot Sophie so you're on

your way. Yeah I'm feeling very vindicated right now I'm so glad she popped up in the first minute almost or second minute to score that goal but I think she adds something different a new dimension to the Spanish side that maybe they haven't traditionally had over the years you know that kind of out and out forward yes Jenny Hemoso at times was that player but I think she is that kind of natural number nine and it means that they can use that utilize those long balls, which is kind of not what you really think of when you think of Spain playing football. Right. They they play through the center.

They kind of pass their way through the thirds and into the box and then have a have a shot. So I think the first goal particularly showed that extra dimension to the Spanish side. You know, Olga Camona's long ball forward, the depth touchdown and then the really, really kind of dirty finish, I think filthy finish. It was so good. And then to get the other one is kind of like approach this finish in a way, just being there at the right time. But she is very good. She's having a wonderful season at Gotham at the moment. She's scored 10 and 13 games. She's leading the Golden Boot race there. She's in the form of her career at the moment. She's scored 10 in 13 games. She's leading the Golden Boot race there. It's, yeah, she's in the form of her career at the moment at 32 as well. I know she had a good

season a couple of years ago as well, but I think she is looking very, very bright and very, very potent for the Spanish. Yeah, Vicky Lopez looked really bright as well, Tim. Just a quick one on her. She was one of the stars of the show. as I mentioned came into midfield in place of Itana Bonmati and scored on her major tournament debut. Did she show exactly why everyone's quite excited about her as a prospect? Yeah, absolutely and it just shows the depth Spain have that they're able to leave out the current Ballon d'Or winner. I mean effectively the story of this game is both teams are missing probably their best player from Barcelona, Kika Nazareth for Portugal and Bon Matip for Spain and I think we could see who that was a bigger

problem for but because I thought that maybe you know Spain would start Salma, drop Mariana back into midfield where she's been playing for Arsenal but no they trusted Vicky Lopez and were very very vindicated by that and the the way Spain play, honestly, there was a chance in the first half where it was all just completely one touch. I think the ball fell to Lopez and it was saved. Nobody looked at any point. Everyone just knew exactly where each other was.

I think you can see Spain are gonna be really, really formidable, particularly with the depth that they have to be at. Like, I don't think they have to trouble Aitana Bonmatty in this group stage at all. If I were them, I'd let her get over her illness and I wouldn't start her in any of the group games because they just have the depth to deal with it, particularly against the opponents they're going to come up against in this group. Yeah, Belgium up next. Portugal will face Italy, that's in Geneva. But how do Portugal pick themselves up for that match against Italy, Tom? It's going to be challenging because when you have such a heavy defeat, you know, that's a massive blow to your morale and they're going to need

to regroup very quickly. You don't get very much time in between these fixtures. Italy next clearly now becomes a must-win game for them and my overwhelming feeling with them is that it's a sadness, a disappointment first of all for this women's team that Kika Nazareth is not there, to play that game you want the best player available and then you add in a tragedy, wider tragedy for Portuguese football at the moment. And it just feels like everything's kind of, you know, going against them in so many different ways. And I feel very sorry for them. Um, you never know sometimes, sometimes you can galvanise as a group, can't you?

In adversity and maybe, maybe, maybe they can surprise us and become that sort of really lovely, poignant, poignant story. But yesterday they just looked a little bit out of their depth a little bit against the high calibre that Spain had. So I worry that their tournament could be over a bit quicker than we wanted, which is sad because they showed in the Nations League sort of home game against England that the potential is there when they can click it together. But you really need all your best players available for a tournament like this. I think I would just add that their defence is awful. To be perfectly frank, it's absolutely terrible and yes, Spain were very, very good at times and they look good, but I think you

just clarify that with the kind of the fact that there was so many holes in that defense. They've shipped 25 goals in their last five games. That is not a defense of an elite team, you know, and they have to really be a bit more mature about things. I think they approached the game a bit wrong. I think the way that they set up against Spain, they wanted to try and play their football. They didn't do what, say, England did in February against Spain, where they kind of sacrificed their style and made sure they defended the Spanish out of the game, didn't let them operate in those midfield areas. So I do just think that we do have to mention that defence because yes, Spain were very, very good but they will come up against a lot of sterner defences in what they faced in that opening game. Yeah, without a doubt. Right, that's it for part one. In part two we're going to have a look ahead to a big group D game between England and France while Wales will make history against the

Netherlands. Welcome back to part two of the Guardian Women's Football Weekly. So while Group C kicks off this afternoon as we record on Friday morning, Denmark taking on Sweden and Germany facing Poland, we're going to look ahead to Saturday and Group D with England beginning their title defense in a captivating encounter against France. Tom, you've been amongst the England camp all of this week. Tell us a little bit more about the camp itself. How is everybody feeling?

What have you got to report? The mood is quite good amongst the England camp. As it stands, everybody in the 23 is fit and healthy for the game. We spent a bit of time with Serena Wigman on Wednesday in England's hotel, which I have to say is the most luxurious hotel in Zurich. On the top of a hill overlooking the lake, you couldn't imagine a more serene environment for these players to be staying in for the next few weeks. But, yeah, Serena Wigman was in quite relaxed and seemed quite at ease with things. Understandably, you know, she's in her fifth major tournament now as a head coach and reached the final of all the others. So she's probably got reason to be calm. Yeah, we had a really interesting conversation with

Serena Vigman about, particularly about some of the things that she feels she's adapted and changed since she took charge of England. She gave some examples, for example, that when she first came in, she had quite a few more rules, she banned briefly jewellery and a few things like that, but she's she's really relaxed those now. She said when she was a school teacher she used to kind of insist that people sat in certain places at dinner time or rotated around for meal time so you socialized with different people, but she said she's much more relaxed about that now, just lets them all kind of just have the headspace that they need. I thought that was quite interesting that she seems to be less strict, is that the right word? But not that she was ever necessarily

strict beforehand but she certainly seems to be mellowing and easing into this now. And England, England do seem cautiously positive. I think there's an awareness in the camp of how good France are. There's a respect for them. But there's also this feeling that England have got Hemp back, they've got Samway back, they've got Grima back and Lauren James looked raring to go against Jamaica and they've been training well. And there's a sort of a quiet, calm confidence, I think, in the group at the moment with belief. I like the sound of that. We need a little bit of calm after the chaos that's been the past few weeks I feel. The game itself, Soph, I'm so excited about it. Mostly because actually it's really difficult to predict France all of the time and it's kind

of been difficult to predict England of late as well. So I don't kind of quite know what we're going to see on Saturday night. We've seen some fascinating results over the years, but what do England need to do to try and control this encounter? We talked about the fact that they changed their style of football against Spain in order to get that win. What are they going to need to do against France? They're going to need to definitely protect the back line a bit. I think the direct running of the likes of, you know, De'Anni, Kato'oto, Baltimore as well, Sandy Baltimore. She's on the, you know, having the season of her life at Chelsea and she is such a threat because she

plays higher for France than she did for Chelsea for most of the season. So I think they have to be really, really wary of that pace of attack. It might mean that Lucy Bronze has to be a bit more controlled in terms of her breaking forward, maybe be more responsible defensively and kind of control that. But I think England dictate the play the best when they dictate it from the front. I think that press of Lorynham, Alessia Russo, Beth Mead or Chloe Kelly, whoever starts, is so, so integral to their performance. It sets the tone for them. Alessio Russo is one of the most intelligent players at reading a press and when to activate it and when to jump and

when not to jump. And I think she is going to be absolutely key in this because if you pressure that French back line, you've got some really good quality defenders in there, but I think you can get at them and start to take control. If you can win the ball back up high and then get the chances from there, that's going to be key. Yeah. What about France, Tim? High quality on paper, but how are they going to get success over England?

Yeah. I mean, they come into the tournament in quite good shape actually, but I think, and obviously there's been a lot of talk in the run-up to the tournament with England, like with big players not being there, like Mary Earps, Frank Kirby, Millie Bright. Obviously France have made two very big decisions in not bringing Eugénie La Sommère,

which perhaps is a bit more, I say understandable, but they've left Wendy Renard out, which is a really, really big decision, not least because she's still starting and playing for Lyon. And also she's a really good source of goals as well. And as an England fan, I'm quite relieved that I'm not going to have to face her from corners in particular. But I think the area I'm really interested in, I think So did a good job of describing a lot of France is kind of the threat they have going forward, particularly in transition, but in midfield,

I think that's going to be really key here. The kind of Ghera and Toleti against kind of Walsh and Stamway. I really see that as the critical area because I think those players are really, really well matched as individuals. First and foremost, it's perhaps in terms of the squad, England's weakest area as well and I think it'll also be really fascinating to see where the England start Lauren James actually and if they do where they start her as well because if you start her as a 10 then maybe you lose something in that midfield and France can really dominate that area or do

you start her from out wide but then France have so many wide threats as well you know do you really want Lauren James on the right for example when you've got Baltimore attacking on the left so I wouldn't mind betting that England do spare Lauren James and use her as a bit of a super sub for this game but I think France in midfield look that that's the area I think that will really decide this game. I do find the Wendy Renard thing so strange. I was watching Ada Hegerberg in the Norway game and she had this steel about her. She has this right we are going to do you see her face she was like a proper right game mode. Even when she scored she looked like

she was going to kill someone. I know but Wendy Renard has that about her and when you need somebody on the pitch that's going to do that with everybody, gather everybody in like we saw Hegerberg do, I don't know maybe it's because I'm a little bit old school but those kind of players you don't see those natural older leaders as much anymore and we'll see whether or not that's going to bite France in the backside potentially. I wouldn't usually use a phrase like that I don't know what I chose to do right then anyway let's head to Lucerne shall we because emotions are definitely going to be running high for Wales you know finally ending a series of disappointments and stepping out a major tournament for the first time and

seems like they've settled in well as well in their new home in Switzerland. Tom, they've been doing lots of media, brilliant stories that are coming out of the camp. I've really enjoyed, I love it when there's a tournament newbie and you get to learn so much more about them as a team. Do you get the feeling that they're actually quite relaxed coming into this? You know they haven't got anything to lose really, have they? I think you summed it up perfectly. They do seem very, very happy to be here. Probably the happiest to be here of any of the teams. And they seem to be, I've had a very warm welcome there up in their training

base in, in Vianfelden, which is sign of in the North East of Switzerland. Some of the players we believe have had a bit of a nice day off up in the Alps at one point just to get a bit of that mountain air and just sort of see some of the scenery and training hard as well of course as well as all that but they really seem to be trying to soak up every minute of the major tournament experience. Everything you hear from that is that it's a very united group. They don't seem to have any of those kind of splinter groups that you get with some of the more longer established major tournament national teams, shall we say.

It seems quite a united front and I'm looking forward to seeing that kind of red wall against the orange wall in Le Cern tomorrow. But yeah, I'm with you. I think it's a really refreshing thing for the tournament to have new faces. I'm seeing another one of those tonight when I see Poland play and I think that that's good for the tournament. I'm still worried for Wales that they have the three toughest opponents that I think anyone has ever picked up in a group stage so I hope the feel good feeling will last for Wales but you never know. Okay so it's great that they're in a group stage. So I hope the clear good feeling will last for Wales but you never know.

Okay so it's great that they're in a good place Wales but they are facing former European champions the Netherlands in their opener which is a daunting prospect. What are they going to be focusing on to try and get something out of this game? I think their defensive ability more than anything, you know they have to control the as much as they can the Dutch attacking players, and that's going to be tricky. But I think they can take a lot of courage and belief from their Nations League campaign. Until the last game, they didn't concede more than two goals. So I think, oh, one goal. Rhian Wilkinson has really brought that kind of defensive solidity into them and really made them hard to beat, hard to break down. So that's going to be super important for them, but by God, it's going to be hard. Yeah, it is. We don't even need to say

that the Dutch are a stack with quality, Tim, do we? But you know firsthand the quality of Viviana Miedemaer, currently on 99 goals for her country. How does that defensive unit go about nullifying her threat if it's even possible? And what else, who else should we be watching out for? Yeah, I'd say first and foremost, I really hope this is a good tournament for Viv because obviously she missed the World Cup in 2023. The last Euros was a write off for her because she got such a nasty bout of Covid and we didn't see, I think, the real Vivian Miedema and it feels like time we saw the real Vivian Miedema at a tournament again and of course she scored in the warm-up and you know she's been a bit in and out

with injury this year but I think that might play into her advantage a little bit that maybe she's a bit fresher at this tournament than others and And the answer is if we get prime Vivianne Meadema, there is no stopping her, quite frankly. But I think really other things to look out for for Netherlands, again, with my Arsenal hat on, Victoria Pelova, who plays a bit more of a wide role for Netherlands because they're so stacked in the middle. Really, really interesting. And obviously she missed most of last season with an ACL. So she's coming into this maybe a bit fresh as well. But I think the other

thing to kind of keep an eye on, obviously Netherlands have so much turbulence with their coaches since Serena left, Mark Parsons didn't really work. Andris Jonkers here, but he's going to leave after this tournament. And it feels like this Netherlands team is still really the team of 2017 but I think we had a bit of a clue on social media, Leo Valti left some flowers for the Netherlands team in their hotel and dressed it to Viv Anteem which slightly suggests that Vivian Meedema might be the captain and if that's the case it means Sharida Spitzer who's played over 200 games for Netherlands might not be a starter anymore which I think has been a discussion in Netherlands for quite a few years now and it looks like Andrzej

Jankos is finally going to make that decision that she's not going to be a starter so I think Netherlands have the quality definitely to move on from that player but it's it's a big deal because she's been in that team for well over a decade and that might be a bit of a talking point certainly back in Netherlands. Yeah, well it's going to be one of those things isn't it? Are they still going to be a united front? Choices like that I think should be made way before a tournament and announced way before a tournament if that is indeed the case. Right we'll be bringing you all the reviews of the Group C and D games on the pod on Sunday so watch out for that. Few bits of news though to bring you

from outside of the Euros. Tom I think I'm gonna call you our manager head coach correspondent because we've got a little bit of news for you. So earlier on, well in fact it wasn't even earlier on, it was a bit weird actually Manchester City announcing current Denmark manager Andre Jeglets as their new head coach. Really strange timing because the news came out at 6 p.m. right in the middle of a Euro 2025 match and actually 24 hours before Denmark are due to play theirs. What did you make of it all? Yeah, it also came out half an hour after Denmark's press conference with the Eglerts

had finished for the pre-match, which was interesting timing. And you were just talking with Tim about things that could have been announced way before the tournament. I'm surprised this wasn't announced earlier. We wrote in The Guardian in the first week of June that we understood this was really close. But putting that aside, I think I can really see why Manchester City have gone with this appointment. Yigletz has got a couple of things on his CV that really stand out. One of them is a European title from 21 years ago, something that Manchester City would love to achieve in the future with their women's team. And secondly is that he's got a reputation for playing sort of possession-based passing football that Manchester City admire. So those things have really worked in his favour in this regard.

He's come with good references, he's got a lot of great experience and it'd be fascinating to see how he gets on. It's not going to be a huge shift in massive shifting style from what Man City have produced before under Taylor. My only very small question mark would be that for the people that I've spoken to about Jägerlöts, they've thrown a lot of praise at his attractive football but they've maybe said occasionally that he's not been flexible to sort of adapt to different games tactically and kind of one of those coaches who like stick to the principles of if I'm being a little bit a little bit lazy with the comparison, it's a little

bit like watching Southampton men over the last like two years like you know when they had that sort of wonderful passing style that got them promoted and then they kind of carried on to do the same thing. Now that's very lazy but that's the sort of examples that people have given me about his style of play. Like you're like watching it but will it actually win you a game against Chelsea? We'll wait and see. I'm really curious. Very long on. Do you know what? A friend of mine is a Southampton fan and when I tripped that out about Russell Martin additionally he was very quick to jump in and said, Russell has adapted his style since that. I was like, okay.

Yeah. I've been very unfair there, but I've tried to do a terrible segue there. If I talk about Southampton, who we understand that Southampton's women's team are really close now and maybe even by the time this podcast is out there for listeners, it might be confirmed. We believe they were on the verge of appointing Simon Parker as their new women's team head coach. He was of course the Blackburn head coach in the women's championship for the last couple of years and yeah our understanding is that that is pretty much almost there now. That's almost done. That Parker will move to Southampton. A coach who I think had a lot of good will from the way he performed at Blackburn on a very very small budget so I'm sort of pleased to see him get a

chance with a with a club that hopefully will give a bit more resources and the other news on managers at the moment is that our understanding is that Martin Ho has signed a three-year deal at Tottenham to be the replacement for Robert Villaham of course went to the quarterfinals of the Women's Chalice League with SK Brann. Last season has the Norwegian club second in Mottabon at the moment in the top seer and so he'll, as we understand it, be going to North London. So lots of changes. I think I'm right in saying that leaves just Liverpool now with the vacancy and then the summer managerial

merry-go-round can conclude in the English top two leagues but maybe there's another one I'm forgetting there's been so many changes in the last six weeks. Maybe it can stop and get a bit of an oiling the carousel been going around for a little while hasn't it. He was also former Manchester United assistant by the way, Martin Hoake, a member of Mark Skinner's coaching staff until he left in 2023, but knows the English game really well, having been an assistant at Everton and managed Liverpool's under-21s as well. So of course we'll let you know if that gets done and dusted by the beginning of next week.

Elsewhere some headline signings domestically in terms of players. Chloe Kelly's made her move to Arsenal permanent after that successful loan spell at the club. Chelsea have signed Australia fullback Ellie Carpenter from Lyon and young Japanese defender Toko Koga has joined Tottenham Hotspur from Firenord as well. We'll keep you up to date on all of the transfer lines making the headlines but But of course, we're focusing on Euro 2025. And as I say, the review pod for Group's C and D games will be on Sunday. Tim, see you later. Ask Tom and Sophie. Well, Sophie hasn't even tried

any yet to send you some cheese. I will. Thank you very very much my pleasure as always. I'm very sad I can't have I can have sheep's cheese and goats cheese I just can't have cows cheese but anyway send me some cheese Tom Gary please. I will try if anyone's having cheese over here it needs to be in a fridge it's too hot I know I said at the start of the pod that I made that prediction about the weather that it was gonna cool down now after that storm in a fridge, it's too hot. I know I said at the start of the pod that I made that prediction about the weather that it was going to cool down now after that storm. I was totally wrong. It's now just gone 10 o'clock here and it's already

too hot. Oh no. In the time we recorded the pod, it's just become unbearable in this room. So I'm heading out to get myself underneath some sort of tree somewhere. We'll see you soon. I'd go and find an air-conditioned mall if I were you. They don't seem to have a lot of air conditioning in anyone's apartments or hotels. Everyone's got like a fan, but generally across all the journalists I've spoken to in Switzerland, no one seems to have air-conditioned. No, well it's understandable, it's Switzerland,

so I do get it. Soph, take care of yourself. Listen, get some sleep, please. Yeah, I've got to drive to Geneva first today and do the Sweden-Denmark game, but then hopefully some sleep over the weekend. Excellent. Right. I look forward to your report on that match. Keep having your say as well. Send in your questions to us via social media

or email us at women'sfootballweeklyattheguardian.com As ever as well, a reminder to sign up for our bi- us at women'sfootballweeklyattheguardian.com. As ever as well a reminder to sign up for our bi-weekly Women's Football Newsletter. All you need to do is search Moving the Goalposts sign up. The Guardian Women's Football Weekly is produced by Sophie Downey and Silas Gray. Music composition was by Laura Iardell. Our executive producer is Salamat. This is The Guardian.